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posted by mrpg on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the makes-me-feel-old dept.

The Guardian (and likely everyone else) is reporting that AOL is killing off their instant messenger service. For those of us who never quite got the hang of IRC, AOL Messenger (not to mention MSN Messenger at the same time) was a truly fun way to chat with people we knew in an age before smart phones and SMS. And yes, my AOL screen name wound up becoming my default ID almost everywhere.

An article on AOL's website on Friday said AOL Instant Messenger will be discontinued on 15 December. The program will still function until then but after that, users won't be able to sign in and all data will be deleted. AOL says people with an aim.com email address will still be able to use it.

In a blogpost, a spokesman for AOL's parent company explained the platform's demise as the casualty of the evolving way people communicate.

"AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed," wrote Michael Albers, vice president of communications at Oath.

Launched in 1997, AOL Instant Messenger was at the forefront of what was called at the time the biggest trend in online communication since email.

I for one would happily trade in WhatsApp, Google Chat, and all of the others for a return to AOL Messenger.

Also at USA TODAY: RIP AIM: AOL Instant Messenger dies in December


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:21AM (10 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:21AM (#578751) Journal
    poorly.

    Good riddance to AOL. But are there any good IRC servers still around?

    I quit my last online game when coldfront shut down and the other players all moved to diskord. It's depressing to see, the last vestiges of the free internet dying off and being replaced with all this proprietary garbage and people just accept it.

    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:58AM (#578764)

    There are a couple of IRC networks around, but whether or not they are "good" is up to interpretation. Some have different features and services than others, plus different networks cater towards different groups.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Sunday October 08 2017, @05:39AM (6 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday October 08 2017, @05:39AM (#578788) Homepage
    Join the party: irc.soylentnews.org:6667
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday October 08 2017, @05:49AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday October 08 2017, @05:49AM (#578791) Homepage
      Oh, and will whoever told me that IRC was "dead" on a thread last month please post the AOL AIM usage figures that I asked for? Or does your lack of response tacitly mean you're retracting your argument?
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:00AM (4 children)

      by Arik (4543) on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:00AM (#578796) Journal
      What games do you play?
      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:09AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:09AM (#578798)

        Game of Fonts

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:40AM (1 child)

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:40AM (#578802) Homepage
        Conversation.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday October 08 2017, @07:04AM

          by Arik (4543) on Sunday October 08 2017, @07:04AM (#578808) Journal
          Just as well I suppose, can't play much else without handing over the keys to the kingdom; or playing ancient stuff in a vm where it can controlled properly.

          I was quite fond of the latter, however.
          --
          If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 08 2017, @10:50AM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday October 08 2017, @10:50AM (#578835) Journal

        What games do you play?

        Options:

        1. Chess
        2. Global Thermonuclear War
        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Sunday October 08 2017, @08:50AM

    by Aiwendil (531) on Sunday October 08 2017, @08:50AM (#578822) Journal

    (Assuming you are asking about networks and not servers)
    For programming Freenode ( https://freenode.net/kb/answer/chat [freenode.net] ) is quite active.

    For social activities it varies quite a bit - but the old nets [IRCNet, EFNet, DALNet..] are still around.

    And there are lots of small (semi-)private nets and smaller nets and lone servers (like soylent) around.

  • (Score: 4, Touché) by RamiK on Sunday October 08 2017, @10:49AM

    by RamiK (1813) on Sunday October 08 2017, @10:49AM (#578834)

    Those who forget IRC are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.

    Considering Slashdot and Soylentnews are to newsgroups and mailing lists as AOL's Messenger is to IRC, are we really ones to judge? I mean, I don't know about you, but despite the trolling and bot wars, I still haven't found an alternative to comp.arch or most of comp.* really.

    --
    compiling...